PIRATES
OF HOLLYWOOD
or, The Curse of the Green-Glow Camcorder
07/20/05
In today's multi-billion
dollar movie pirating enterprises, largely dominated by global
criminal networks, he was essentially a lone wolf. Just one guy with
a digital camcorder, sitting in theaters filming movies. What harm could
he do?
Plenty.
Meet Johnny
Ray Gasca, the so-called "prince of pirates." This
native New Yorker already had a bad track record when he moved to Hollywood
in 2002. He'd been convicted of petit larceny and assault with intent
to cause serious injury with a weapon after shooting someone in the
face with a handgun, and had served time in a New York prison. Now
he'd come to Hollywood with a special dream: to put himself behind
the camera--not to make movies, but to steal them.
His modus
operandi? Chutzpah. He'd hang around theaters where advance
screenings were scheduled...pose as a movie industry insider...find
his way into the theater...rig his camera to the arm rest for stability...and
start filming when the lights went down. His high-end sound and recording
equipment—creating a distinctive green glow—produced extraordinarily
good quality master recordings, and he'd rush home to mass produce
them on 11 interlinked VCRs then sell them over the Internet. By beating
the public release of blockbuster films, he claimed in his diary to
be clearing as much as $4,500 a week.
Fortunately,
he had a habit of getting caught. Burbank police arrested
him when he was caught at a screening of The Core. Then at Anger
Management. Then 8 Mile. Our law enforcement partners
called us in to search Gasca's apartment and there it all was: things
like two video camcorders, a micro-camera built onto a trouser belt,
two DVD recorders, the 11 linked VCRs, a stolen Social Security card,
and his two diaries, which happily chronicled all the bad things he'd
been doing.
Hollywood
ending. Gasca later threatened to sell up to 20 more unreleased
movies online and "laugh all the way to jail" unless the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) helped him get his equipment
back. He was charged in April 2003 (the first person ever indicted
on federal charges of movie piracy)...and was placed in his lawyer's
custody to discuss legal strategy...at which point he disappeared without
a trace. Two years passed before U.S. Marshals got a tip and chased
him down at a motel in Kissimmee, Florida. What was he doing? Illegally
copying movies. Of course.
Gasca was tried in
Los Angeles and found guilty on eight criminal counts. He faces a maximum
of 33 years in prison, with his sentencing scheduled for this September.
Moral of the
story. In the words of President and CEO of the MPAA to Johnny
and his fellow pirates: "There is nowhere to hide, and you will
be caught."
Links: Press
release | More cyber stories | Other recent
cases: Operation
D-Elite | Operation
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